Roughing It Smoothly - Tiffin Motorhomes

Making a HouseFeel Like Homethe wounds every day with silver nitrate and peroxide.Peroxide will clean out a wound and keepthe infection out.”Bob made no defense for his stubbornness33 years ago. But he experienced no disabilityfrom the injury and claims today that he canthrow a football 40 yards.“You know football is serious business inthis state,” Bob told the New York photograbyFred ThompsonLast month at the FMCA Convention in Albuquerquea retired couple with 13 years of full-time RVing experiencecame to check out the Tiffin display of 18units. After they had visited three Allegro Bays, I engagedthem in conversation.“What do you like best about these motorhomes?” I asked.They owned a 1996 Allegro, and he answered quickly, “The engineeringdesign is practical and they’re built solid.”“My motorhome feels like home. It’s not glitzy—it’s just comfortable,and I like being in it,” was the feminine response. “Andthat’s the way these new ones feel, too,” she continued. She wasa bit surprised to learn that the CEO’s wife, Judy Tiffin, was theinterior designer.“Where did she get her interior decoration training?” the fulltimerasked. “At home,” I answered with a smile.“You said ‘my motorhome feels like home’ and I can tell youthat Judy Tiffin knows how to make a place feel like home,” I saidas she began smiling, too.The middle child, Judy has a sister five years older and a brother10 years younger. She was only 10 days old on April 1,1944, whenher father, A.M. Nix, shipped out to France on the Queen Mary tofight the Germans. When he returned, they bonded quickly.“Daddy taught me how to fish, and I still love to fish today,” Judyopened the interview with quick snapshots into her life. “I like flyfishing best. I put a popping bug in front and follow it 18 inches behindwith a willow fly.” She must have transferred her love for fishingto her son, Van, who has two trophy fish on his office walls.“Daddy opened a Dairy Bar in Red Bay in 1956 and I startedworking there when I was barely 12. Later on, Bobwould come and hang out at the Dairy Bar and that’swhere we first got to know each other.”Bob played tackle on the Red Bay football team.In the fall of his senior year, he hurt his knee in a treecutting accident. Advised not to dress-out that weekend,he asked Judy for a date to go to the game. Itwas a beginning.Two years later they were married by her GranddaddyNix, a Baptist preacher who lived a few milesaway in Belmont, Miss. Tim was born the next year.Listening to the interview, Bob added, “We really just grew uptogether.” Forty-three years later, he shows appreciation, admiration,and respect for Judy’s many talents and skills. On the counterin the kitchen was a huge bouquet of flowers Bob had presentedon her birthday.“Judy did a really good job of raising our children,” he continued.“I was at the plant or the cotton gin nearly all the time, andshe devoted full time to raising them.”“But you were always there for them, and had a strong influenceon their spiritual training and outside interests,” she countered.Continuing to live in their hometown, Judy and Bob added Vanto the family in 1965. Three years later, Judy started buying cottonfor the The Gin Company. After the cotton was classed by a governmentagent, Judy would buy it from the farmer and sell it to thecotton buyers in Selma, Memphis, or Montgomery.“It was the dirtiest job I’ve ever had. No one could get that dirtycleaning their house,” she remembered vividly. “The gin generatedso much lint and dirt into the air. It just layered onto you. I usuallykept the boys with me at the gin, and it kept poor Van’s allergiesgoing all the time.”The company usually ginned 120 to 130 bales a day. Bob andJudy still remember all the facts and figures from the business. “Ittakes 1600 pounds of seed cotton to make a 500 pound bale.” Andthey can still reel off the specifications for classifying cotton.Judy remembers Bob’s accident at the gin as if it happenedyesterday. “The gin made so much noise that I could not hear himhollering. It took three weeks to get him out of the hospital. He wassupposed to go home for several weeks to recuperate. But he didn’t.He went right back to work.” She glared at himdisapprovingly even now. “I treated and dressedDaddytaught me howto fish, and I stilllove to fishtoday.17